Stargazing
by Traveling Trainer
Summary: In the time between adventures, two explorers spend the night learning, a bit about themselves, a bit about the night's treasure. Mystery Dungeon-based, lightly shippy oneshot.


The fire was slowly dying, the last of the firewood burning to ashes as tiny embers caught the wind and swirled towards the night sky, almost unrecognizable among the twinkling lights. Cyan snored loudly as he lay atop his hiking pack, his chest heaving back and forth as the Samurott snoozed away. Erin had curled up into a tiny ball at the foot of the backpack, her sleeves covering her midsection as she tossed and turned in her sleep, a dreamy smile plastered on her face. I couldn't help but crack a grin as the thin pink mink let out a string of incomprehensible babbling, and I pulled a sturdy branch from a nearby tree to idly poke at the remains of the campfire, the flames no longer strong enough to bother me.

"Bill?" I turned to look at the source of the kind, slightly-raspy voice, accidentally sending the poker a bit too deep into the pile of ashes. Rose stepped towards me, smiling warmly as she watched me aimlessly jab at the charred logs. "Oh, so you're still awake."

"I dunno, I might just be sleeptalking," I replied, reaching over and lightly flicking her nose, to which she pretended to spit a lick of flame at my paw. I drew back instinctively, feeling my fur bristle at the thought of catching fire, only to feel a rough, damp tongue lick playfully at one of my pawpads. I rolled my eyes. "You don't have a shift for keeping watch tonight. Couldn't sleep?"

"I think you know why." Rose gestured with her head towards the blue sea lion, and I chuckled, yanking the poker out of the fire. The wood was stained white from ash, and I stuck the stick into the dirt, where it stood firm against the soft breeze. "Though I don't think that much is going to come after us around here."

"True," I agreed, kicking back and laying against the tree trunk, peering upwards at the starry sky. "We're not camping out in a dungeon, after all, so we're probably fairly safe."

The Ninetales walked over to me and lay down, and I brought an arm under her back and swept her off her feet, setting her comfortably on top of me. She kicked a bit before settling down, resting her heat next to mine as we cuddled together, the clearing silent save for the dying campfire, and Cyan's incessant snoring. A couple more embers were pulled into the air, dancing around each other as they rose towards the moon, before the flew away on the wind's gales. Rose's breathing seemed to lose its rhythm as her brow furrowed slightly, a smile on her face.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked, stroking her belly, and she lifted one of her front paws, pointing at a small cluster of stars. Her headfur tickled my aura tassels as they mingled.

"Look right there..." She told me, and I narrowed my eyes, focusing on where she was aiming at. "Can you see it?"

"Uh..." The group of stars winked brightly, a couple just barely larger than others, but didn't seem to have any particularly interesting characteristics. I felt myself start to panic a bit as Rose waited patiently for an answer. "...no?"

"What?" She gave me a skeptical look out of the corner of her eye, jokingly batting at my leg with one of her lower paws. "It's the Ursaring's Paw! Look, see, there's one claw..."

As she pointed out the angular shape that the stars dotted out, a crude image began to form in my mind's eye, dots and lines connecting as the cream-furred fox drew the view out. Slowly, but surely, I was able to visualize an Ursaring's paw in the outline, albeit a misshapen one; the stars weren't a very accurate way to draw it out.

"Bill?" Rose broke me out of my stupor, and I looked at her. "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, uh-huh-" I nodded, extending my arm out and drawing a figure in the air. I hoped I'd gotten it right. "It's... like that, right?"

"Right, yeah!" Rose said cheerfully, and she returned to studying the stars again, looking for more shapes. I clicked my tongue, nuzzling my nose into her neck. "Let's see if we can find any other constellations!"

"I don't even know what I'm looking for here," I remarked, and she whipped her head around, looking wide-eyed at me. I grinned mildly in response. "What? Normally I'm asleep by now."

"You're..." Rose started hesitantly, understanding seemingly dawning on her face. "Oh... wait, I forgot..."

"Forgot?" My eyebrow quirked upward. "About what?"

"O-Oh!" Her face flamed, one of the few times I could see the blush through her fur, and she shook her head. "Never mind, it's nothing too important. Here, lemme see if I can find another constellation..."

I blinked briefly before dropping the subject, wincing a bit as the fox wriggled around on my stomach as she looked for another group of stars. I nudged her side to get her to stop, and she glanced at me, quitting her fidgeting as she saw my pained expression. I sighed as she calmly scanned across the sky, and I let my head back against the tree, closing my eyes in contentment. The heat from the long-gone campfire was beginning to fade, replaced by the cool night air. Cyan was still snoring, and I frowned as he let out a snort mid-breath, scratching unconsciously at his mustache.

"Oh!" Rose barked out, and I returned my attention to the sky. Rose aimed her muzzle a few inches away from the Ursaring's Paw, pointing out a trio of bright stars in a straight line. "Do you see those ones?"

"Uh-huh," I affirmed with a nod, and I moved my head a little bit forward, our noses grazing lightly. "So what's that one supposed to be?"

"It's Exeggutor's heads!" Rose looked around, her eyes latching onto the poker stick. "Here, grab that and I'll show you the rest of it, okay?"

I let out a brief chuckle before pulling the poker out of the ground, and as I moved it into my other paw, Rose put her paw on top, gently guiding my movement. She traced out a figure; a large diamond-like shape, the three stars that made up the heads, and two lines sprouting upward from the two ends. I let out a hum, thinking hard as the picture took shape. "So? Can you see it now?"

"I... kinda, I suppose," I replied. I could see the trunk, the palm fronds that split off of the top. The goofy-looking heads were easy enough to understand. "That's... that's pretty neat, actually."

"Have I really never shown you these in all this time?" Rose asked incredulously, seemingly more taken aback with herself than with me. I shrugged, shaking my head, and she lay back against my shoulder, letting herself bask in the glow of the moon, which moved slowly across the sky. A couple clouds were beginning to get in our way, outlined brightly from the light above, and my partner pouted playfully. "Sheesh, the night I find out that you don't know about the constellations and it starts to get overcast as soon as I realize it."

"Hey, I already told you that I normally sleep through this sort of thing," I joked, slipping my paws behind my head as Rose rolled off of me, stepping to my side and sitting down. Her tails snaked their way behind my back. They tickled. "Now at least there's an excuse for me to nod off."

"Oh, c'mon," Rose chuckled, rolling her eyes as she smiled happily. "Did you at least think it was a little interesting, Bill?"

"I suppose." I rubbed my nose with my pawspike, glancing briefly back up at the constellation of the Exeggutor. The three heads were shining brightly, much more noticeable than the rest of the group. "I didn't realize you liked this kind of thing. You never really mentioned it before."

"Well that's because you were always asleep, you sleepyhead!" Rose shot back with a wink, and I recoiled, bringing a paw to my chest in mock offense. My partner giggled. "But... I've always liked looking at the stars. I always liked looking at the sunsets at the beach near Treasure Town, so one thing normally led to another..."

"Yeah, I gotcha," I nodded, looking back to the night sky. The moon was behind a cloud, but it shined as bright as ever, its silvery light basking the small clearing in a soft glow, reflecting off of Cyan's helmet and getting in his eyes. He grumbled, finally stopping his snoring, and rolled over. "So... any other ones you can show me?"

Rose turned to look at me in surprise. "You... want me to?"

I reached over to wrap an arm around her back, pulling her close to me and embracing her, affectionately stroking her back. She began to purr again, much louder than earlier, and I brushed her cheek, looking her right in the eye. She stared back, some small seed of hope clear in her eyes.

I smirked. "Well, unless you give me a reason to not want you to."

"Moment-killer," She replied, lunging forward as we booped noses, and the two of us landed in a heap on the dirt, Rose wrapping her tails around me as she moved over to look at the stars again. "Let's see... there's the Ursaring's Paw, the Exeggcutor, so what else is there to see tonight?"

"What about that one there?" I pointed towards a fairly bright star, just a short distance away from the Ursaring's Paw. "Is that one part of anything?"

"Oh!" She nodded vigorously, smiling. "Yeah, that's Unown's Star!"

"...that's it? Just 'Unown's Star'?" I snarked. Rose wiggled a bit, shoving me with her butt. "So is it a part of something or what?"

"Yeah, it's part of one of the most well-known constellations!" She poked her paw outward and moved it along, and I eyed the path she traced. Just a short line and a jagged box; could these get any more vague? "It's called the Looking Glass."

"Huh." After bizarre and sort-of-complicated shapes like the last one's we'd looked at, something as simple as a looking glass felt like an odd change of pace. I reached out and traced the path with my own paw, moving up the line and making a circle."Yeah. I guess I can see that."

"Oh really?" Rose gave me a sly gaze. "Then why don't you try and pick one out on your own, huh?"

I grinned confidently, cracking my knuckles as I stared up into the night. Rose nodded at me, urging me to go on. "Alrighty, then, let's see."

I gave the entire sky a once-over, skipping over the constellations we'd already seen as I tried my hardest to look for any stars that made some kind of sensible pattern. The vastness of it all quickly ran over my head and boggled me, and I had to blink after a while, coming back to my senses and shaking my head. As I rubbed between my ears, I hear Rose laughing quietly at me.

"Give up?" Her voice rang clear, and I turned my head to look at her. A couple strands of her headfur dangled in front of her face, her ruby-red eyes staring at me lovingly. I reached over and curled her into an embrace, and we moved back to the tree, leaning against the trunk as we snuggled up to each other, under the cover of the forest and the stars.

"Yeah," I finally answered, and she let out a snort. "Maybe another night."

* * *

**A/N: A little world-buildy, a little character-buildy, but mostly shippy fluff. Been a while since I did something like that with these two.**


End file.
